In a warning, Dr. Shible Sahbani said: WHO The representative in Sudan said heavy fighting between Sudan’s rival armies has made access to El Fasher “completely impossible” as the warring parties in the country continue to hold talks in Geneva.
The latest warning about the emergency comes 15 months after a fierce conflict broke out between rival armies in Sudan over a proposed transition to civilian rule, following a military coup in 2021 and the 2019 ouster of long-serving President Omar Al-Bashir.
Millions of people forced to flee
“The states of Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazira are virtually cut off from humanitarian and medical aid due to ongoing fighting“, the WHO official told reporters in Geneva. “The situation in Darfur is particularly alarming, with places like El Fasher…the wounded cannot receive the urgent care they need; children and pregnant and lactating women are weak because of acute hunger.”
Large parts of Sudan have been hit by fighting, after hostilities involving heavy weapons and fighter jets spread from the capital Khartoum to other regions and states, including Darfur, in the west of the vast country.
In addition to pleading with warring parties to ensure the protection of civilians, emergency services and public infrastructure, including hospitals, in accordance with international humanitarian law, the WHO official urged that access was “immediately needed so that we could avert the disastrous health situation“.
Relief supplies on the way
Existing health care stocks have been used to supply a few hospitals in El Fasher, but “it’s not enough and it’s not sustainable”the WHO official insisted, adding that the UN Aid Coordination Office, OCHAcontinued to negotiate with the various warring parties to ensure that relief supplies could be delivered by truck wherever possible.
“Right now I have seven trucks going from Kordofans to Darfur… and just yesterday we got the approval to send them to Darfur,” Dr Sahbani said, adding that there were also “good signals” about cross-border aid operations from “all the different parties”.
“But that is not enough, again, because we have to deal with these matters on an ad hoc basis… We need more advocacy within the country with the different warring parties, but we also need advocacy with the big countries, with those who have some influence on the situation.”
Dr Sahbani said that when he was on an assessment mission in neighbouring Chad last week, desperate refugees told him that “the main reason they are leaving Sudan now is hunger, famine…They said it is not the insecurity or the lack of access to basic services, but that we have nothing to eat there.”
The WHO official described his shock when a woman who had fled Darfur and arrived in Adré just across Chad’s eastern border told him that “everything we use to produce (food) locally, to eat, has been taken by fighters.” She had walked for three days with her children in search of safety, without food for the entire journey.
Geneva talks focus on
Dr Sahbani warned that the humanitarian response in Sudan is only 26 percent funded, describing the emergency as “one of the worst in the world”.
Humanitarian access and protection of civilians are among the main topics up for discussion at UN-led talks between representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The talks began last week in Geneva, chaired by the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra.
UN spokesman in Geneva Alessandra Vellucci told journalists that both delegations were “engaged” and that Mr Lamamra and his team had spoken to each of them several times over the weekend.
“If we don’t get a ceasefire, we can at least get protection of civilians and opening of humanitarian corridors,” Dr. Sahbani noted.
